Engineering Student, Graduate Assistant Selected for Awards

Two individuals associated with the College of Engineering and Applied Science won awards from the University of Wyoming’s Academic Affairs.

Amy Reece, a graduate student in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, won the Outstanding Master’s Thesis award. The campus award recognizes a graduate student for an exemplary master’s thesis.

Reece, who studies chemical engineering, accepted the award April 21 at the Graduate Student Awards Lunch. She was joined at the event by her Department Adviser and Associate Professor John Oakey, Chemical Engineering Department Head Vladimir Alvarado, Associate Professor Joe Holles and CEAS Dean Michael Pishko.

“Her thesis, titled ‘Microfluidic Inertial Focusing Fundamentals, Limitations and Applications for Biomedical Sample Processing,’ was an exceptional undertaking that would have been ambitious for most Ph.D. students,” Alvarado wrote. “This project involved a background and expertise in several disciplines, from applied physics to chemistry and cell biology.”

Hadi Shafei, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science, was tabbed for a John P. Ellbogen Outstanding Graduate Assistant Teaching award. The honor is bestowed to graduate teaching assistants to honor their excellence in teaching.

“Hadi is an exceptional teacher; I would say he is among the best I have ever known,” writes Department of Computer Science Head James Caldwell. “… [H]e found ways to explain the material to students in ways I often had not thought of. He is a patient teacher with a quiet and respectful manner.”